Denizens, our theme for this week’s edition of the Perfect Football Weekend is “transistions”.
Over the last few days, a handful of folks were rather rudely informed that their services were no longer needed.
Neil Callaway and Dennis Erickson were fired from Alabama-Birmingham & Arizona State, respectively.
Rick Neuheisel got his ass handed to him – first by a USC team that’s on probation (an 0-50 shellacking), then by his athletic director.  Moreover – and I’m just finding this out as I type this – Rock Chalk finally decided it had had enough with old friend & perennial PFW trackee Turner Gill – a move, which, honestly, wasn’t terribly unexpected.
And, in another not-terribly-surprising move, Widdle Donna McCrabby, the World’s Greatest Quarterback Ever In The History Of Ever, Ever!!!™, was rather abruptly informed that, not only was he not good enough to be on the Minne-haha ViQueens, roster…he wasn’t good enough to be on any roster, period.  Ah, how the mighty have fallen.
But it’s the firing of so-called “interim” Ohio State head coach Luke Fickell that’s got my ass chapped today.
You’ve no doubt heard by now that the Buckeyes, in what wasn’t a terribly closely-guarded secret, have hired Urban Meyer to be their new head coach.  And they fired Fickell in order to do so.
Almost as if they couldn’t get rid of Fickell soon enough to worship at the feet of the college football ghod.
Now, I’ve no great love for Ohio State, but it’s a respectable program.  Or, at least, it was.  But they had here an opportunity to retain a head coach who loved what he did, who loved the university where he plied his craft – indeed, where he had played, and wasn’t too shabby as a player – and who would have stayed with them for a long time as head coach and brought the program back to prominence.  Potentially, you could have seen Luke Fickell as the head coach at OSU for the next 25 years, at least.  Probably longer.
But no.  OSU had to go for the shiny bauble, tossing aside the not-as-attractive-but-far-more-dependable Fickell.  The Texas Rangers did that nearly 40 years ago, firing Whitey Herzog and replacing him with Billy Martin, the hot managing prospect at the time.
Martin won his share of world championships – just not with Texas.  Herzog, meanwhile, took Kansas City & St. Louis to World Series.  How’d that work out for the stRangers?
Very classless move, OSU.  Not terribly unlike Penn State, IYAM.
On to the on-field stuff.  Another rather short schedule, seeing as a couple of my teams are done.  We do have most of my teams in action, though.  Gary Patterson’s 19th-ranked Texas Christian Horned Frogs get to officially don their final Mountain West football crown tomorrow, as they’re a 39-point favorite at home against UNLV on Senior Day.
In fact, the only question seems to be whether Patterson will let Ross Evans kick, after his arrest in Denton the other day.  Otherwise – does anyone really  expect UNLV to put up much of a fight?
Also tomorrow, it’s the annual “Bedlam” game pitting Bob Stoops’ 10th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners against their 3rd-ranked cross-state rivals, the Oklahoma State Cowboys.  This game is in Stillwater for a second straight year, which puzzles me a bit.  I mean, OSU’s already gonna win the game – they have one of the nation’s best QB-WR tandems in Brandon Weeden & Justin Blackmon going against an extremely suspect Sooner secondary.  OSU’s only a 3½-point favorite here, and Cthulu knows why.  But isn’t the game supposed to be in Norman?
Tomorrow night, Bucky gets a rematch against Michigan State in the Big Ten Eleven Twelve Ten championship game – and if they can keep it at a two-score game with a minute left to play…I’ll still feel a lot better when the clock reads 0:00.
Bucky’s a solid 9½-point favorite here, which means the game’s gonna scare the Hell™ outta me.
Sunday, the Dallas Cowgirls will travel to Phoenix, and probably make the Arizona Cardinals third-string quarterback look like Tom-Freakin’-Brady.  (When you have Larry Fitzgerald going up against that  secondary, I  could look like Brady.)
Let’s put the over/under at three Romo picks, one of ’em a pick-six, whaddya you t’ink?
We’re back Monday or so with the recap.  (Maybe Tuesday, ’cause vacation’s over Monday, and I got a mountain o’ work staring me in the face when I get back.)  In the meantime, my question for HDD is…should Bret start fitting his team for championship rings?